NO CARD NO CHOCS but 4u with love
Have you seen, Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror Series?
Series One has three Episodes, National Anthem, 15 Million Credits and Black Mirror. There are re-occurring themes; use/abuse of technology, sex/love gone right and wrong and attempting to accommodate personal demons.
If Black Mirror was a drink it would not be a Jager Bomb as it’s more complex. The taste would be a fusion of bitter and sower, with some near recognisable flavours and others totally new to the palate. A mix of hot chilli, organic limes, a dollop of Marmite, a type of strawberry that laughs at itself, a self-aware banana and definitely a strong vodka, but is there a hint of mature malt whiskey? It would be in a crystal pint glass subtlety shaken and vigorously stirred by a vicious fist of fun with hardly a drop spilt.
The First, National Anthem was a throat cutting parody on a politicians absolute need to retain power despite the personal cost. It portrayed the contest, between a Prime Minister losing his self-esteem to keep in power, by satisfying the demands of public opinion polls.
The plot was snarly plausible. In order to save the much loved beautiful young princess (a brunette) from a wicked beast, the Prime Minister is blackmailed into ‘pork’ a pig live on TV. (Yes, a bit chilli, limes, strawberry and bananas). The denouncement, however showing a year after the events leaves an lingering after-taste (marmite?); the Prime Minister’s popularity is higher than it was, his wife only publicly tolerates him and the concept artist behind the ‘stunt kidnap’ and blackmail, kills himself in disgust of the human condition.
If you wanna guess where reality TV and digital media and solutions to youth unemployment could lead to in the recognisable future, then Episode Two, 15 Million Credits, is worth watching. The under-current is the pointlessness of intellectually contemning the value of the social cohesion built by the popularity of reality entertainment and the high rewards bestowed on the celebrities it creates. The irony was intensified by the viewer willing the ‘authentic’ entertainer to kill himself on TV to prove his authenticity – and so improving the entertainment value and popularity etc. ?
The dark as Marmite, Black Mirror, is the Third and last Episode of Series 1. It examines the need for white lies against graphic HD detail to keep a happy loving couple together. These lies helped calm the deed emotional raging metaphorical pools in married couples where oil and water mix at extremist temperatures of boiling hot and ice.
That was my experience which I want to share we you – if you have not come across its worth-while TV and available on demand at Amazon.
Suggested accompanying sound tracks
Divine Comedy -Sticks and Stones
Cocteau Twins – Pandora
Noah and the Whale – L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.
Enjoy